Is there a more confusing to obtain party member then Reiji in Persona 1?

[Gold Arsene]

Meet Reiji, the secret party member in the original Persona.

Meet the checklist of shit you gotta do to unlock him.

the following:

1. Talk to the teacher in the Teacher's Lounge (職員室) next to the 1F Entrance Hall, and learn about the student hanging out in the Empty Classroom on the 2F.
2. Go to the Empty Classroom (空教室) to the west furthest to the back at 2F, meet Reiji for the first time.
3. Go talk to the male student (男子生徒) in Class 2-1.
4. Head to the convenience store at Joy Street (ジョイ通り), talk to Reiji's mother (レイジ母). Tell her that (i) you know about her son (知っている) and (ii) you will be happy to be his friend (いいよ). Only talk to her once.
5. Head to the casino in the same mall, and talk to the blonde man (チーマー). He will tell that Reiji likes to wander at the Abandoned Factory.
6. Go to the Abandoned Factory (廃工場) and meet with Reiji. He will just leave instantly.

After you have cleared the Transformed Mikage Hospital (異界化御影総合病院):

1. Head down to the SEBEC Building (セベクビル), there will be some guards blocking the road. See the event involving Reiji.
2. Keep playing with only four members (MC, Maki, Mark, and Nanjo). Whenever other members (Brown, Elly, and Ayase) propose to join, decline.
3. Eventually the MC's school will become one of the dungeons, meet with Reiji on the 2F and he will join forcefully.

Click to shrink...

You have to basically go out of your way to explore early in the game(Persona 1's exploration not being that great IMO doesn't help) talk to an otherwise non descript NPC(only once mind you, try talking to her a second time and you apparently lock yourself out off the character) and then tell every other potential party memember to leave also meaning you go without a fifth team member much longer.

I'm sure there's secret characters much worse somewhere bu Reiji always stick out to me. He gets a bit more story so it's still worth it since P1 isn't THAT hard but still how was anyone supposed to do this without a guide I have no idea.

 

[criteriondog]

Huh, that's really interesting. I wonder how many people knew this back in the day. Crazy that talking more than once to an NPC can lock this character out, and you have to decline other party member's help, etc.

Really cool, though. I'll look this up later on YouTube. Kinda like it when devs do stuff like this. It's interesting and pretty cool!

 

[Strandr]

Immediately reminds me of the process required for getting Vincent in original FFVII

 

[JazzmanZ]

There are fire emblem characters you can only recruit if a specific party member is on a specific tile on the map that unlocks a secret paralouge chapter.

Sometimes it also requires killing one of your units to unlock another unit.

 

[Gold Arsene]

Huh, that's really interesting. I wonder how many people knew this back in the day. Crazy that talking more than once to an NPC can lock this character out, and you have to decline other party member's help, etc.

Really cool, though. I'll look this up later on YouTube. Kinda like it when devs do stuff like this. It's interesting and pretty cool!

Click to shrink...

Persona 1 was weird with it's party system. In the main route you had four default members(MC, Mark, Maki, and Nanjo) you would then run into others at points in the story who'd ask to join and you'd have to tell them no if you wanted the next character. If you didn't jump through the hoops to get Reiji you'll be forced to bring the last one to ask if you haven't recruited anyone else.

Persona 1 really is such an odd game.

 

[Isilia]

Xavier from Fire Emblem Thracia 776.

It's a long one, I'll just copy/paste his recruitment:

It's the completely obvious choice that everybody saw coming a mile away. Yes, sadly Xavier deserves the reputation he's gotten for having the most ridiculous recruitment requirement in the entire series. So how do you get this guy again? "Let the civilians talk to all 8 Lenster Armors near Xavier. Then talk with Leaf". Did I mention that the civilians are NPC's? That means that they'll walk straight toward enemy units that are trying to kill them. Guess who are among these enemies? The Armor Knights that are supposed to be talking to said NPCs.

So you have to find a way of keeping them from suiciding onto your troops. Oh does that sound too easy for you? Ok then. If you start recruiting any of these Armor Knights then the ones you haven't recruited yet will turn on their former allies. Guess what these guys usually wield? Killer Lances and Hammers! Which means that the likelihood of slaughtering their former allies is really high.


If that wasn't bad enough there's another ridiculous element to it all: You have to get specific NPCs to talk to specific Armor Knights. I repeat: "You have to get specific NPCs to talk to specific Armor Knights." Does the game ever tell you which NPCs go with which Armor Knights? No! Of course not.

If any civilian dies before they talk to their specific Armor Knight you can't get Xavier, but if they die after recruiting their specific Armor Knight then that's okay. If any of these specific Armor Knights die before talking to their respective NPC then you also can't recruit Xavier.

 

[Bran]

Star Ocean 2 character recruiting is kind of involved but nowhere close to that lol.

edit: Some of the special characters in Final Fantasy Tactics required a little extra effort than usual, too!

 

[Dreamboum]

His character is the most directly involved with the SEBEC route as he is the villain's half brother so they wanted him to be special and unique.
Also, recruiting party members means they always hang around and have a lot to say so you actually get a new experience playing the game with a new party member. And Reiji is the "best" one to have story-wise.

 

[Weiss]

I'd probably go with Reiji as well.

I think there's this one party member in Planescape Torment who's a pain to get but someone who has actually played the game can fill us in on that.

 

[TRUSTNO1]

Reiji's worth it because the Sebec route is basically tailored for him and he's pretty unique.

Gogo in FFVI is pretty out there. Meet a specific enemy on a remote island and let your party members all get taken out by its attack.

 

[onpoint]

I'm torn on it. On one hand I really appreciate intricate secrets but on the other I hate when a process is so obscure you absolutely need a guide to do it.

 

[GreenMamba]

Maybe not super confusing, but I always thought it was funny that Musashi from the first Shining Force only joins you if you read a random note on a wall that says he is going to join you.

 

[grand]

Stefan from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:

"The only way to recruit Stefan is to make Lethe or Mordecai obtain the Vague Katti. If any other character obtains the Vague Katti, you will not get Stefan.

Thieves have a guaranteed chance of picking up items, while other characters have a (Skill +1)% chance."

The actual spot is non-descript so you have no reason to actually go there. And it's away from the rest of the action so you have even less reason to go there. And neither of the characters you need to pick it up are thieves so even if you get the right spot, you might not pick up the item you need. Annnnd if you accidently step on the tile with another character, you have a chance of obtaining the item with the wrong character & thus getting locked out of Stefan (especially if one of your thieves is traveling in the area or looking for other hidden items)

Oh, and did I mention it's a desert map so traveling anywhere takes forever?

 

[akilshohen]

Makes me want to play Persona 1 now. Are the gloves something in the original artwork, or something added to the US version?

 

[Weiss]

Makes me want to play Persona 1 now. Are the gloves something in the original artwork, or something added to the US version?

Click to shrink...

No, they've always been there.

 

[zulux21]

I can't give you a specific name, but one of the Chrono Cross characters

How to Unlock Characters in Chrono Cross (with Pictures) - wikiHow Fun

Chrono Cross is a role playing video game developed for PlayStation. You must navigate parallel worlds in order to help a teenage boy, Serge, discover why his worlds are split as they are. There are over forty characters in the game -...

www.wikihow.com

There are 40+ characters to unlock, most of missable, most become perm missable after you do something, and I'm not sure you can even get all the characters on a single playthrough. (that guide is at least missing Mojo. I just checked that. don't know if it's missing others)

I wouldn't be surprised if the Suikoden series had more confusion ones as well

S4 Recruitment Guide - Suikosource

www.suikosource.com

for example 4 has 108 characters to get :P

 

[NovumVeritas]

I can't give you a specific name, but one of the Chrono Cross characters

How to Unlock Characters in Chrono Cross (with Pictures) - wikiHow Fun

Chrono Cross is a role playing video game developed for PlayStation. You must navigate parallel worlds in order to help a teenage boy, Serge, discover why his worlds are split as they are. There are over forty characters in the game -...

www.wikihow.com

There are 40+ characters to unlock, most of missable, most become perm missable after you do something, and I'm not sure you can even get all the characters on a single playthrough.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Suikoden series had more confusion ones as well

S4 Recruitment Guide - Suikosource

www.suikosource.com

for example 4 has 108 characters to get :P

Click to shrink...

Suikoden 1 and 2 also had 108 Stars. You needed guides for them too.

 

[Lobster Roll]

Every Suikoden game has an enormous roster of characters, and some of them (like Clive in S2) are locked behind time limits.

 

[zulux21]

Suikoden 1 and 2 also had 108 Stars. You needed guides for them too.

Click to shrink...

Suikoden is a series I've always wanted to play, but haven't gotten around to doing it. I just know about the large number of characters you can get but never have gotten to chase any of them despite owning most of the games :P

I just figured some of those characters must have insane/confusing requirements to get.

 

[NovumVeritas]

Suikoden is a series I've always wanted to play, but haven't gotten around to doing it. I just know about the large number of characters you can get but never have gotten to chase any of them despite owning most of the games :P

I just figured some of those characters must have insane/confusing requirements to get.

Click to shrink...

I recommend Suikoden 1 and 2. And if you start it I would recommend a guide. The 108 Stars are also a requirement for the best ending :)
And some characters are missable and you are right some have confusing or time gated requirements.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

I've tried to play Persona 1 about four times now. Dropped it the first time because I just wasn't feeling it, but the other three times I stopped playing because each time I tried to get Reiji and each time I somehow fucked up despite using a guide and didn't get him. It's ridiculous lol.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Human form Reis is a pretty obscure one in FFT. Nowhere near Reiji level though.

 

[EggmaniMN]

Oriental Blue has some characters like this. Depending on the seconds on the in-game clock, if you talk to a specific NPC in a town, later in the game one of two characters will join you. There's a scroll in a tower and if you read it, one character will join you later and if you don't read it, another character will join you. All of these events are hours and hours apart.

Getting a specific character in Star Ocean 1 requires you to recruit specific characters, say no to others at specific times and then multiple characters leave you so the one can join.

 

[sir_crocodile]

There was a game on the PSP...Blazing Souls: Accelate I think, where practically everything was a headache. The true route guide was insane. I don't recall if any one specific character needed so much though

 

[ss_lemonade]

I know no such examples, but I'm pretty proud of young me unlocking (accidentally lol) hidden characters my older brothers never found when I play their saved files in RPGs. Some that I remember are recruiting Doyle in Shining the Holy Ark and Zhuge Liang in Destiny of an Emperor for the NES (was he an optional character? I can't even remember anymore, but I know that my brothers could never figure out how to recruit him)

 

[DPB]

Maybe not super confusing, but I always thought it was funny that Musashi from the first Shining Force only joins you if you read a random note on a wall that says he is going to join you.

Click to shrink...

I played Shining Force in the 90s, again when it was re-released and even the GBA remake. I'm fairly sure I've never recruited this character he's so obscure.

 

[Nimby]

The Saga series has a ton of these, but I'm most familiar with Minstrel Song.

Captain Silver

In order to enlist her in your party you must complete her quest on Oapu and defeat her dragon form. She will then give you a Fatestone (a key item in the game).

Later in the game when pirates attack the city Melvir, you must ignore the main objective and venture into the sewers and find the secret Pirate Hideout. Doing so will cause you to fail the quest and lock you out of any rewards you could have received and transport you to a coastal town where you can recruit her. The way quests work in Minstrel Song means you can easily miss either of these if you don't know about them in advance.

Frielei

An extremely late game party member guarding Frosthold Fortress in Valhalland. To gain entry you must navigate the mountains and caves to find a Faerie, and you must take a lock of her hair across the game map to a lake in the underground city of Merholm.

You must then complete the dungeon and her boss fight with only four members in your party and when she asks to join your party after the fight you must accept, or she can never be recruited. You can also not disband her because she has no location in the game world, you have to commit to her if you really want to use her.

You might also have to fight her with three party members if you choose to have the Red Mage help you in the dungeon. He is a special party member that can only be used for that dungeon, and will leave forcefully before finishing it.

Darque

This party member is only available in a second play through, as you are required to complete the Assassin's Guild quest line, fight the Saruin cultist Scorn at least once, and be more favorable to dark Gods by the end of the play through so you can access Death's Domain, you must also meet Death in the playthrough, although you can just talk to him rather than fighting him. This all has to be done in one playthrough, so even if you go into NG+, Darque won't be available until the next playthrough if you don't complete all these objectives. You may also have to fight a possessed Pyrix to gain entry into the Underworld.

 

[Parthenios]

There were a lot of characters in the Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon remake for DS that you could only recruit if you were under a certain threshold number of total characters, meaning you had to permanently kill a bunch of your team.

 

[Xbro]

Xavier from Fire Emblem Thracia 776.

It's a long one, I'll just copy/paste his recruitment:

It's the completely obvious choice that everybody saw coming a mile away. Yes, sadly Xavier deserves the reputation he's gotten for having the most ridiculous recruitment requirement in the entire series. So how do you get this guy again? "Let the civilians talk to all 8 Lenster Armors near Xavier. Then talk with Leaf". Did I mention that the civilians are NPC's? That means that they'll walk straight toward enemy units that are trying to kill them. Guess who are among these enemies? The Armor Knights that are supposed to be talking to said NPCs.

So you have to find a way of keeping them from suiciding onto your troops. Oh does that sound too easy for you? Ok then. If you start recruiting any of these Armor Knights then the ones you haven't recruited yet will turn on their former allies. Guess what these guys usually wield? Killer Lances and Hammers! Which means that the likelihood of slaughtering their former allies is really high.


If that wasn't bad enough there's another ridiculous element to it all: You have to get specific NPCs to talk to specific Armor Knights. I repeat: "You have to get specific NPCs to talk to specific Armor Knights." Does the game ever tell you which NPCs go with which Armor Knights? No! Of course not.

If any civilian dies before they talk to their specific Armor Knight you can't get Xavier, but if they die after recruiting their specific Armor Knight then that's okay. If any of these specific Armor Knights die before talking to their respective NPC then you also can't recruit Xavier.

Click to shrink...

The only character I ever decided was just not worth it.

 

[Nimby]

Another one:

Dragon Knight

One of the coolest optional party members. You must unlock the quest to fight him, have Raphael in your party and defeat him with Dragon Vortex combo, then return to him with an empty slot in your party and help him defeat a minion of Saruin.

Simple enough, but one major caveat. If you ever met Prince Neidhart in your playthrough (unavoidable if you picked Albert, the starting choice character, or Aisha under normal circumstances) he will come to slay the dragon after completing his quest. Locking you out of that character. You must have Raphael and Neidhart in your party if you even witness Neidhart once in-game or during a cutscene, and recruiting Neidhart requires you to give him the Aquamarine, a fatestone which when equipped on a character gives you some substantial buffs and is required if you want to fight the most powerful form of the final boss. You'll have to obtain it in a separate playthrough.

 

[Isilia]

The only character I ever decided was just not worth it.

Click to shrink...

I don't even think he's worth the trouble to be honest. Only to say you did it.

Kinda like the person you get in the last Gaiden in the game. Equally tough to get. Completely unnecessary (minus the plot, of course)

 

[RecRoulette]

Reiji's cool as hell, but yeah. I've fucked this up multiple times while following the guide because I miss some detail along the way and by the time you find out it's too late lol

 

[Keym]

If you want to recruit Heat in Digital Devil Saga 2, you have to pick some very specific dialogue options in the previous game, otherwise he'll be locked out forever.

 

[grand]

If you want to recruit Heat in Digital Devil Saga 2, you have to pick some very specific dialogue options in the previous game, otherwise he'll be locked out forever.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, you ONLY use Heat for the final boss in DDS2 and in replacement of another party member. It's more of a character wrap-up than a hidden character

 

[super-famicom]

I am really enjoying this thread. Give me more!

 

[sfedai0]

So for all these obscure and hard to get characters, does the developer leave clues or even expect the person playing to be aware or is this such an easter egg that only following a guide can get you there?

 

[grand]

So for all these obscure and hard to get characters, does the developer leave clues or even expect the person playing to be aware or is this such an easter egg that only following a guide can get you there?

Click to shrink...

"Please buy the guide our marketing team has made a deal with"

Also why this trend has almost completely died with the advent of the internet

 

[Sölf]

While not as complex as some others in here, let me introduce you to THE german RPG Maker Game:

Unterwegs in Düsterburg (On the road to Düsterburg, basically)

A small introduction:
UiD takes place in a world inspired by middle european folklore. In the story you and your merryband try to defeat a vampire who forcefully took cotrol of a castle and the surrounding lands. The game is cut into several chapters which take place in various areas in and around the town and castle of Düsterburg. It has many, many sidequests which are not that easy to do sometimes and can take place over several hours of gameplay (becaus they stretch that long by doing something in the beginning which is only relevant later in the chapter).
Now, UiD doesn't really have hard to recruit partymembers, but you can re-recruit several of them doing some rather specific tasks.

Chapter 1
Not really hard, but at the very beginning of your game you can recruit your dog, Julie, as a party member.

Chapter 2
In chapter 2 it is possible to re-recruit one party member by doing the following:
- Get a mining pick
- Go to the guards and get thrown into jail by telling them you committed a crime
- While in the cell open up the wall using the mining pick, enter the sewers and go back (you only have a few seconds to do this, because a timer is running in the background)
- Re-enter the cell, you will be freed.

Later on a murder is happening and it looks like you are the culprit. You convice the guards to find the real culprit if one of your party member stays behind in jail. Now if you did the things I described above you can ignore the investigation, enter the sewers from somewhere else and just go and re-recruit the character in the cell by entering it from the hole you made earlier. It only helps you for an upcoming boss battle though.

If you recruited Julie in chapter 1 you can also re-recruit her in chapter 2. I don't remember the specifics, but it wasn't that hard.

Chapter 5
Now this is where it gets interesting. Chapter 5 takes place in a huge city over the span of 4 days and 4 nights. Certain things are only possible at certains days or at a certain time of day (day or night). Several of the sidequests span at least 1 day and 1 night cycle, so it is easy to miss certain things and not complete or even find some sidequests in this chapter.
At the beginning of chapter 5 your get 1 completely new party member. Let's just call him A. During chapter 5, another party member, let's call him B, gets first taken hostage, then killed and finally resurrected as a vampire. You then face him again during in the first of the last few final battles.

Now, if you were nice to character A during chapter 5 by doing several sidequests and saying or doing things that please character A, a hidden meter will increase (or decrease of you were not nice). If it is a past a certain treshhold when you face character B during the finale, you can re-recruit him here. In order to do so you need to defeat all other enemies while making sure character B survives the battle. Also, character A will sacrifice himself to "un-vampire" character B. Congrats, you just re-recruited a statwise worse character, but storywise it probably was a good decision (it doesn't really change much except for a few lines of text).

Also, you can re-recruit Julie, your dog, again! You have to do a sidequest though and this one spans several days. I am not sure if all of this needs to be done at the days I post here, but I know that after some point the sidequests is no longer doable. So you need to finish everything beforehand:
- Go to the part of town called "Klipping" and enter a straw building. You will get thrown out by the owner, Hagolf Hammerhand. Just re-enter because you didn't knock the first time. He will tell you his dog went missing.
- Buy a fish.
- Go to the port and talk to Sacha N. Macha in his shop. He will tell you about a cat that licked the blood of his impaled owner.
- On the third day, go back to Klipping and enter a small shed (the entrance is hidden). Inside you will find the dead dog of Hagolf. Bring said dog to Hagolf.
- (this may not be required at all) Go back to the southeastern part of the port. You will find a house guarded by a guard. Try opening the door of said house. You can either try to lock pick it (which will actually decrease the hidden meter for the other character) or come back at night to entert the house.
- In the third night, if you have a bad fish in your inventory (your bought fish will turn bad after some time) go to Klipping. You will find several cats and it seems like they are drawn to the bad fish you have.
- Continue onwards to other maps in Klipping until you will hear a dog.
- Go into the shed where you found the dead dog and you will finally find: Julie! She will now join you for the rest of the game.

There are also some other things, but I am not sure if those were considered during development. During chapter 2 you get a temporary character and normally it is not possible to use him past chapter 2. But if you somehow manage to leave town when this character is still there you should be able to continue to use him until at least chapter 4. On the other hand, if you do that, you miss out on another permanent character you would get after beating chapter 2.

 

[Cantaim]

Characters like the one in the OP are ones that I am firmly convinced were made with the intention of selling strategy guides. There was no way somebody was going to figure this out without getting a heads up.

 

[Hailinel]

The requirements for Reiji's recruitment really fit the pattern for a game that requires you to jump through hoops to access the Snow Queen route.

 

[Psxphile]

Reiji is a pain in the ass to recruit it's true, but he's pretty worth it: he's the only one who can equip Devil and Death Persona, which tend to have better than average stats and are "Strong Vs. Everything". The trade-off being that his main melee weapon (boxing gloves) can only strike anything directly in front of him so battle positioning forces him to be front and center. Oftentimes you'll be relying on his gun (assault rifle, same as Nanjo) for physical damage.

 

[Oliver James]

Clive on Suikoden 2 has a whole FAQ dedicated to recruiting him

 

[Gold Arsene]

The requirements for Reiji's recruitment really fit the pattern for a game that requires you to jump through hoops to access the Snow Queen route.

Click to shrink...

Which is amusing to me since the two are mutually exclusive.

 

[RecRoulette]

To be fair, you ONLY use Heat for the final boss in DDS2 and in replacement of another party member. It's more of a character wrap-up than a hidden character

Click to shrink...

Also he doesn't have English voice acting in 2 for whatever reason

 

[Kain]

Some characters in Chrono Cross were annoying as fuck, specially since some are locked behind dialog choices and once you choose you can't go back.

Clive on Suikoden 2 has a whole FAQ dedicated to recruiting him

Click to shrink...

Oh yes.

 

[New Username]

Edit: deleted post

 

[mclem]

Depends on whether it fits your definition of 'party member', but some of the WoW secret items are ludicrously complex - intended to be solved by the playerbase collectively and co-operatively - and some of them are battle pets.

Take Baa'l, for example:

How to get Baa'l
The Conspicuous Note
Cross the Bridge in Nazmir to the top of the temple and then click on the Conspicuous Note. The note is on the side of the temple.


First Pebble
Interact with pebble on the table in Broken Shore next to Drak'Thul. If you you can't click it, interact with Drak'thul so he turns away from the table, or use a Draenic Invisibility Potion or Skaggldrynk.

Second Pebble
This pebble is in a cave in Boralus. Walk through the net and you should fall down into the cave. The pebble is lying on the floor.

Third Pebble
This pebble is located in a cave in Atal'dazar. It can be reached after a bit of climbing and using a Goblin Glider Kit. Below is a video of how to get to the cave. The pebble is next to a root.

Fourth Pebble
This pebble is located in a cave in Drustvar. The cave is behind a waterfall. In the cave there is an effigy, you will find the pebble in its eye.

Fifth Pebble
This pebble is located in Voldun. The cave is near the tree and takes a small amount of climbing to get to. Get as high as you can on the island and jump down. Beware the angry Krolusk! Make sure to use a Draenic Invisibility Potion or Skaggldrynk to avoid him killing you. The pebble is located at the entrance to the cave, in front of the Krolusk.

Sixth Pebble
This pebble is located in a cave in Stormsong Valley. The easiest way to get up to the cave is using the path from the first waypoint. The pebble is inside the cave, located in a wheelbarrow.

Seventh Pebble
This pebble is located above Nazmir, in the South Seas, in fatigue waters.

To get to both locations without any issue you can use the Feast of the Fishes. Make sure to place it on the shore of Vol'dun or Nazmir while you are in the water.

If you can't get the Feast of the Fishes, then you can use an Elixir of Water Walking or the Anglers' Water Striders to walk on water. As you can see in the screenshot below, the starting location is in a safe area (the white texture on the minimap).



Eighth Pebble
This pebble is located in Boralus, in an underground basement in the maze area of the city. The pebble is behind the keg and the crates.

Ninth Pebble
This pebble is located in a cave off the side of an island in Drustvar. The pebble is at the caves entrance, not in the cave.

Tenth Pebble
This pebble is in a cave in Tirigarde Sound. Make sure to use Draenic Invisibility Potion or Skaggldrynk to get past the Clatterbacks, which will one shot you if run over. The pebble is by a carcass of meat.

Eleventh Pebble
This pebble is located in Tirigarde Sound, in a cave behind a waterfall. Jump up the rocks to get behind it. The pebble is under the scroll at the very back of the room. Tilt your camera to see it.

Twelfth Pebble
This pebble is located in an underwater cave in Boralus. The pebble is near a rock pillar.


Thirteenth Pebble
This pebble is located in a cave past a fatigue area, at the end of the ocean. You will need to use the Elixir of Water Walking or the Anglers' Water Striders to walk on the water. The pebble is located just inside the cave entrance. Disregard the other pebbles in the cave, they're just a distraction.

The text on the pebble reads:

(Something is carved into the stone)
Heckler of the Murkiest Thugs, sheathe your
Bat and remove the Keg Cork, Wot?

Click to shrink...

Baa'l

Heckler Murkiest Thugs -> Kurgthuk the Merciless
Bat Keg Cork Wot -> Get Back to Work

Click to shrink...

The text has been decoded as an anagram by rearranging the letters, and it points to Kurgthuk the Merciless Frostfire Ridge, which yells "GET BACK TO WORK!". Close to this NPC there is a volcano, and it the middle of it you will find Baa'l.

Initially, Baa'l is nearly impossible to kill because he is empowered, however you can reduce his health points by summoning Uuna, provided that you have completed her storyline including the World Tour.

Click to shrink...

Oh, yeah. And summoning Uuna? That's a whole other secret.

And one final thing:

Baa'l will say ominous things when summoned, and if you rearrange the capital letters from the quote below, you can form an anagram for "SEEK KNOWLEDGE".

Souls fEast on enDless shrieKing, in darKNess they writhe and scream, yOu WiLl join thEm, toGether forEver morE!

Click to shrink...

Click to shrink...

...that is the lead-in to another secret, the Waist of Time.


Taking 'confusing' at face value, while it's not for a party member as such, I should also mention the Endless Halls, a step on the way to getting the Lucid Nightmare secret mount. From Blizzard themselves, in their writeup after it was solved:

We sought to create a puzzle that couldn't be completed by just following a guide. Thus, the Endless Halls is randomized based on your player ID, as well as the day of the week. Very few players will ever see the same layout, and coming back the next day will present you with an entirely new challenge.

The Endless Halls is a cruel, uncompromising maze, designed to confuse and disorient at every turn. You start in a nondescript room with foggy exits in the four cardinal directions (N/E/S/W), though some are blocked by rubble. Going in one of these exits will fade the screen to black, then fade back in with you in the connected room.

The goal of the maze is to find 5 colors of orbs (red/blue/green/yellow/purple), and deliver them (carried one at a time) to the 5 matching colors of runes. However, several mechanics make this much more difficult than it may sound.

The maze is arranged on an 8x8 grid of rooms. Each cell has between one and four exits. However, if it would have 4 exits, it's actually not a single room, but two two-way rooms that occupy the same space, but don't intersect. These Non-Intersecting Cross rooms are the first major source of confusing discontinuity, and also cannot contain any Orbs or Runes.

The second main source of disorientation is the edges. They loop around, but not directly. Instead, exiting one end of the maze will send you to the other side of the maze, with an additional offset. This makes it very difficult to tell what room you will end up in if you cross the edge of the map. You can, however, reliably backtrack from your new position to your previous position. Many players made frequent use of this backtracking to reliably navigate the maze without getting lost.

In addition, there is one final wrench thrown into the gears: the Teleportation Trap. Within the maze, a single room is the Teleportation Trap. When you enter this room, you are instead secretly teleported to a random room in the maze. Once you've identified the Teleportation Trap room, avoid it at all costs!

Once you've dropped the fifth orb off at its matching rune, the next exit you travel through will takes you to a golden room with the next Inconspicuous Note.

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 1102]

So this thread helped kinda inspire me to finally go back to P1 and try to get Reiji. I said earlier in the thread that I've tried to get Reiji several times now and failed each time, but I finally got him!

I literally had to use a video guide this time (which I recommend if you want to get him yourself) and yeah, for sure one of the most obtuse ways to get a secret party member. Anyway, sorry for the bump but just wanted to share that it's possible to get him!

 

[CloudCircus]

So this thread helped kinda inspire me to finally go back to P1 and try to get Reiji. I said earlier in the thread that I've tried to get Reiji several times now and failed each time, but I finally got him!

I literally had to use a video guide this time (which I recommend if you want to get him yourself) and yeah, for sure one of the most obtuse ways to get a secret party member. Anyway, sorry for the bump but just wanted to share that it's possible to get him!

Click to shrink...

Good job. At one point in the story should I start to follow a guide to recruit Reiji?

 

[Deleted member 1102]

Good job. At one point in the story should I start to follow a guide to recruit Reiji?

Click to shrink...

Almost immediately tbh. The first requirement is really early in the game (like after the intro where you play the Persona game) so it's best to have it ready for when you're allowed to go where ever you want.